Last weekend I planned to sew my first rainbows for Elora’s quilt. It was a rough start, since my printer stopped working, and I got distracted researching and ordering a new printer. I couldn’t print out everything I wanted, but luckily I did get the cutting templates for my project just before the printer quit. After ordering a new print, I got back on track - - -

I am sewing the Sunshowers quilt, which makes large 15” x 24.5” rainbow blocks. With big blocks and large patchwork pieces, fabric choice has more impact. Visualizing a few blocks at once helps me to feel more confident about cutting out those template shapes. Each fabric stack above represents a 4-arch rainbow block on a low volume background.

Cutting big arches out of fabric makes such strange scraps! But the effect is pretty cool. Also, I was happy to discover that I can sew these curves without pinning. Since they are large, gentle curves, the sewing is pretty forgiving. Still I ended my trimming my finished block a 1/2” shorter than the pattern’s intended size.

Ta da! My first cheery Sunshower’s rainbow block! I used two different background fabrics: Tarrytown Holepunch Dot Orchid and a Tilda Basics tiny star print. I was wondering if two backgrounds would look strange, but I like the effect. For my arches I have a red strawberry Heather Ross print, a golden yellow tone on tone print and two solids from the Ruby + Bee collection.

My next block will have a foundation paper pieced arch, as per the Sunshowers pattern alternative. I have chosen these fabrics, where the stack of various pink solids represents the paper pieced arch. Excited to get back to it!